Pittsburgh is now experiencing its third renaissance since overcoming the collapse of the steel industry in the 1980s, according to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (inset photo). After decades of decline, the city's population is now rebounding, according to the latest Census figures, with young people staying and working in Pittsburgh rather than leaving after graduating from area colleges and universities, Ravenstahl said. Growth has put a coordinated traffic plan on the top of the city's agenda, and in March it won a Smarter Cities Challenge grant to study rail, bus, auto, bicycle and walking path options. IBM's Challenge Grant team recently wrapped up its report.

In one example, IBM recommended better sharing of information and expanded use of sensor-based systems. A "Park PGH" program, for example, gives drivers access to real-time information on parking availability, but it's currently limited to a few sensor-equipped lots. In another example, the city this year reduced traffic congestion in an economic development zone by 20% by using smart, computer-coordinated traffic signals. That project was spearheaded by Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, and the mayor said he wants the technology installed citywide.

"The technology changes the light from red to green when it needs to be changed, and it eliminates one of my pet peeves, which is paying police officers to change traffic signals when they're better suited to the more important work of keeping us safe," Ravenstahl said.

Nice pseudonym, "Leo" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R... This is not your typical image gallery... 10 stories that would be tough to tie together and digest in one, long tract. Let the people read about the cities they want to know more about and skip those that aren't as important to them. --Doug Henschen

Leo: Some people like them, especially for stories like this. Many, in fact. But tell us why you don't. (Also note: we're reworking how they work to be more user friendly.) Feel free to e-mail me as well.

Most IT teams have their conventional databases covered in terms of security and business continuity. But as we enter the era of big data, Hadoop, and NoSQL, protection schemes need to evolve. In fact, big data could drive the next big security strategy shift.

Why should big data be more difficult to secure? In a word, variety. But the business won’t wait to use it to predict customer behavior, find correlations across disparate data sources, predict fraud or financial risk, and more.